Recap: Summer Bike Clinics at the Anacostia Public Library

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Teaching and wrenching at the Anacostia Library

Three years going strong!  Thank you so much to our partners at District Public Libraries, The Bike House, and Capitol Hill Bikes! During clinics, patrons get paired up with a volunteer mechanic and gain wisdom from the “each one teach one” method. Families, couples, little kids, and regulars all come out and learn how to work on their own bike and get it ready to go! WABA helps out as host and we provide bike tips, tricks and trivia, and get people engaged in the bike advocacy process. This summer,volunteer mechanics fixed more than 150 bicycles! Pedal wrenches, third hand tools, and hex keys were moving around throughout the library plaza as bicycle mechanics worked the bike stands to fix everything from flat tires to worn out brake cables. It’s quite the site! The first few clinics of the summer were a challenge because the demand for bike maintenance overwhelmed the few volunteer mechanics on hand. By July though, community members took skills they learned from previous clinics and started teaching others how to fix their own bikes. By the end of the clinic, there were more mechanics than bicycles that needed a fixing! Hopefully, next year’s clinic will be an even bigger success!

Proper tire pressure can be a workout.

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Tuning up some brakes.

Special thanks to our friends at the Bike House and DCPL for making our third clinic series a success!